Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How did Jac Leirner turn devalued Brazilian currency into assemblage art?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Latin American art
Detail from Popular History of Mexico, mosaic mural by Diego Rivera, 1953; on the Teatro des los Insurgentes, Mexico City.
In the context of Latin American art, Brazilian artist Jac Leirner utilized the rapid devaluation of South American currencies during the 1980s as a catalyst for her work. She transformed worthless cruzeiro banknotes into assemblage art by creating long, continuous strings of the devalued currency.
These strings were then rearranged by the artist or by curators into elegant, flowing curves within exhibition spaces. Through this process, Leirner repurposed money as a raw material for artistic creation rather than as a traditional financial reward for her talent, highlighting the economic realities of the period.1